Health Bible

Regular advice: Vigorous workouts do more for you than moderate ones odify it if you lead a sedentary life and your main goal is weight loss. If you work too hard and tire too quickly you may not burn enough calories to make a real dent in your weight. Women assigned to long sessions of moderate exercise lose about the same amount as women who worked harder for shorter bursts. To drop weight, exercise most days of the week at a pace that you can sustain for 30 to 40 minutes. You should be able to talk without gasping for air.

Regular advice: Walking is the simplest form of exercise – all you need are sneakers and a sidewalk.
Modify it if you have heart ailment. Studies show that the tiny particles in the air during a high-smog day can increase the risk of heart attack. Move your workout indoors on smoggy days and flick on the air conditioner – it can cut indoor pollutant levels by up to 50 per cent.

Regular advice: Every little bit of exercise like housework or gardening gets you fitter
Modify it if you’re trying to prevent or treat heart disease. Any activity is better than none but sweeping or pulling weeds won’t work your heart hard or long enough to significantly reduce the odds of clogged arteries, heart attack, or stroke. Instead, do 30 minutes of moderately vigorous exercise four or five times a week to dramatically lower your heart risk.

Regular advice: Swimming is an ideal low-impact aerobic exercise.
Modify it if you have asthma. The chlorine in a pool – even if it’s outdoors – can trigger an attack. To be on the safe side, find a different form of exercise if you have asthma that flares up by poolside. And if you’re trying to slim down, here’s another argument for a land-based workout: Most swimmers don’t burn enough calories to shed many pounds.

SCHEDULE YOUR WORKOUTS:
Start by scheduling your workouts (pick specific days and times) on your calendar for the whole week. For example, if you are following my daily fitness missions, than you would schedule 30 minute Interval Workouts (or if you are just getting started than 10 minutes is great) on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and then schedule 6 to 24 minutes (depending upon where you are in your journey) No Excuses Workouts on Tuesday and Thursday.

GET YOUR DRINKS AND FOOD READY:
Every night, fill up two water bottles (20 ounces each – for my next days’ workout) and two 32 ounce bottles of water. Put them all in a shopping bag along with other healthy snacks like: banana, granola bar, pretzels, nuts, etc. This is for your mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks.

Ensures that you eat something healthy, have a normal portion size (most restaurant portions are 1.5 to 2 times what you need) and it also helps me save money.

GET YOUR WORKOUT CLOTHS AND/OR WORKOUT BAG READY:
Make sure to put on workout cloths and sneakers in your workout bag every night as well. So in the morning, both bags are next to the door and you just need to add lunch in and you are ready to go for the day.

THIS ROUTINE COULD BE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU REACHING YOUR FITNESS AND/OR WEIGHT LOSS GOALS OR YOU GIVING UP.

Start building by setting up your food, fluids and workout gear into your nightly routine so that you don’t have to hassle with it in the morning. This is especially important for you if you are a Mom, because once your kids are up in the morning and things start getting crazy, getting ready for your workout can seem like a major hassle and can lead to you blowing it off.

Yes it tempts to rather sit and relax at night than getting ready with the workout drinks, lunch and workout gear. But once it becomes a part of your routine, it sets up for success of the next day.

Please start building these routines into your evening routine and you will be pleasantly surprised how much this helps you stay consistent with your workouts.

Acupuncture is one of the most field-tested techniques available in complementary medicine. While it’s hard to say exactly how long acupuncture has been around, evidence indicates it’s more than 4,000 years old and was used in the early Asian and Indian cultures. For those who question the effectiveness of this complementary therapy, there is a good deal of empirical and experimental information and studies showing its effectiveness.

A therapy that is a mainstay of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) could not have survived if it were not effective. While there is certainly no substitute for well-documented research using controlled clinical studies, likewise, we cannot ignore thousands of years of clinical experience.

One stumbling block to the acceptance of acupuncture by Western-educated doctors is the inability to state exactly how it works. The theories of TCM, as well as Western investigations of acupuncture, shed some light on possible mechanisms of action. The explanations offered by TCM suffice for practitioners of this ancient art, but often confuse traditional Western beliefs.

While a number of physiological theories have been proposed to explain how acupuncture works, we must remain open-minded to the effectiveness of this therapy. Dismissing a “proven-effective” therapy thousands of years old simply because the Western mind cannot explain its workings only limits the therapeutic choices alternative method seekers.

Acupuncture points lie over free nerve endings wrapped in connective tissue or within the walls of blood vessels; this anatomy may help explain why stimulation of acupuncture points elicits therapeutic effects. Additionally, there is a high concentration of tissue secretory mast cells in and round acupuncture points. The release of histamine (and probably other chemicals) may explain an important part of acupuncture by dilating surrounding blood vessels and stimulating surround nerve terminals. There are several proposed theories that attempt to explain how acupuncture exerts its effects. No one theory fully explains how acupuncture works; the actual mechanisms are complex and likely interrelated. Several theories include the following: Gate theory. Inhibitory neurons close a “gate” to ascending pain fibers, thus preventing pain from reaching the higher brain centers that allow conscious recognition of pain. Evidence shows that acupuncture can induce local pain relief; acupuncture points with the highest proportion of type A nerve fibers relative to type C nerve fibers provide the best regional pain relief. However, while probably accounting for some of the action of acupuncture, the gate theory does not explain the delayed onset of some of the effects seen with acupuncture therapy.

Humoral theory. Local anesthesia results from some combinations of endogenous chemicals, including opioids, serotonin and cholinergic and andrengic compounds. These compounds are increased as a result of acupuncture, and humoral immunity is enhanced during acupuncture treatment. Autonomic nervous system. Stimulating acupuncture points can cause autonomic nervous system dilation of blood vessels (the so-called “somatovisceral reflex”). This helps explain why stimulating points on the skin can exert strong influences on internal organs. Acupuncture may produce these effects by stimulating cyclic AMP, which causes release of catecholamine hormones from the adrenal gland. These hormones then affect cellular functions, such as dilation of blood vessels. Local effects. This actually is more than a theory. Acupuncture produces local effects, including increased local tissue immune function, increased blood supply, local pain relief and muscle and tissue relaxation. Bioelectrical theory. Acupuncture channels (called meridians) allow transmission of nervous impulses because of their low electrical impedance (electrical impedances can be measured at acupuncture points). Acupuncture points boost the DC signals carried by the meridian, which short-circuits the current and blocks the pain impulse. Regardless of which theory or combination of which is the key behind acupuncture, this therapy can be effective for many conditions.

The Healthy Kids, Healthy Schools Child Obesity Summit has been amazing. I will write with more information tomorrow or Monday, but I am excited to tell you that the Houston Independent School Board is ready to take action. They are going to roll out actual pilots that stem from this summit, so I am excited to be a part of it.

The caliber of the people in attendance is amazing. I sat next to Dr. David Satcher during one of the sessions yesterday. Dr. Satcher served as the 16th US Surgeon General up through 2002. I was blown away.

Please fit in today’s workout and then enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Today’s Topics:
• Are you earning success?
• Today’s Fitness Mission

ARE YOU EARNING SUCCESS?
Can you look yourself in the mirror and honestly tell yourself that
you have earned the right to be successful in reaching your weight
loss and/or fitness goals?

This is important so please think about this:

• Are you doing 3 interval workouts per week?
• Are you doing 2 or 3 No Excuses Workouts per week?
• Are you tracking your results through your No Excuses System Web-
based software or through the Yahoo Group Polls?
• Are you having at least 64 ounces of water per day?
• Are you having breakfast within 1 hour of waking up?
• Are you not skipping meals?
• Are you having healthy snacks mid-morning and mid-afternoon?
• Are you only having dessert once a week?
• Are you limiting yourself to 1 glass of wine or 1 beer per night?
• Are you not having seconds and watching your portions?

OK, cut me off. You get the point. Losing weight and getting fit is not easy. As you can see from the above list, it requires a lot of effort, hard work and consistency.

I want you to look over this list and look over my 15 Secrets to Better Health (in the Files section of my Yahoo Group home page) and make sure you are doing all these suggestions.

If you are, YOU ARE EARNING SUCCESS! IF NOT, TAKE ACTION TODAY AND START EARNING THE SUCCESS YOU DESERVE!

TODAY’S FITNESS MISSION: Family Fun Workout! Saturdays are our Family Fitness Day, so plan something fun with
your kids, spouse or a friend. And remember, any movement is great for your health. So just do
something and Be Proud!

Any movement counts, so be creative:
• go for a walk with your spouse, kids or the whole family
• play tag with your kids
• clean out your garage or basement with your family
• vacuum, feather dust or sweep the floor a quicker pace than usual
• throw or kick a ball around the yard or your basement with the kids
• challenge your kids to a push-up and sit-up contest
• meet a friend at the mall and walk for 5 minutes between visiting
stores

By turning family time into fitness time, you are improving your family’s health and everyone’s energy levels. So get moving and have fun!